Wednesday, federal agriculture minister Lawrence MacAulay announced up to $9.98 million in funding for community food projects through the fifth phase of the Local Food Infrastructure Fund, an outworking of the Food Policy for Canada.

The fund is geared toward “projects to improve food security across Canada, including community gardens and kitchens, refrigerated trucks and storage units for donated food, and greenhouses in remote and Northern communities,” a federal news release said. Since 2019, the Local Food Infrastructure Fund has committed $64.8 million to such projects, the release added.

The 192 projects approved for this installment of funding include:

• Solar panels for a vertical farm at a school in High River, Alta.
• Hydroponic tower gardens, potato farming equipment and gardening tools for Kawacatoose First Nation in Saskatchewan.
• A cargo van and power pallet truck for Greater Hamilton Food Share in Hamilton, Ont.
• A tractor, greenhouse and various gardening equipment for Le Conseil des Atikamekw d’Opticiwan in Quebec.
• A cargo van for a church in Edmonton, Alta.

“In communities of all sizes, we need to continue supporting service organizations aiding families,” MacAulay said in the release.

The post Feds disburse funds on community food security projects appeared first on Country Guide.

“It is probable that Canadians will continue to experience the strain of food inflation compounded by increasing costs of housing, energy and various other expenditures,” according to Canada’s Food Price Report 2024.

The food bill for a family of four is estimated at $16,297.20, an increase of $701.79 compared to 2023.

The report is produced by Dalhousie University, the University of Guelph, the University of British Columbia and the University of Saskatchewan.

Sylvain Charlebois, project lead, professor, and director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, said this reflects two major disruptions — the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine — having been largely absorbed by global food markets.

“These ‘black swan’ events have kind of faded away,” Charlebois said.

Grocers are responding to the return of some stability by running promotions and generally engaging in stiffer competition.

“It is much easier for them to plan, and plan promotions,” Charlebois said.

Last year’s report forecast a five to seven per cent increase in food prices in 2023. The current rate for food price increases is 5.9 per cent, according to Consumer Price Index data.

The increase was attributed to enduring COVID-19 supply chain problems, climate change, carbon taxes, the conflict in Ukraine and labour disruptions.

Charlebois expects food inflation to continue to fade throughout 2024. “The sweet spot for food inflation is 1.5 to 2.5 per cent,” he said. “We’re not there yet, but I think we will be there by the end of 2024.”

Still, Canadian consumers have been hard-pressed in recent months when it comes to food prices. There were nearly two million visits to food banks in Canada in 2023, a 32 per cent increase over the previous year.

“This is the highest level of food bank use in Canada on record,” stated the report.

Consumers believe that price gouging by grocery companies is the main reason for escalating food prices, but a Bank of Canada study shows markups were in line with inflation rates.

Charlebois expects to see the political heat surrounding food inflation to fall in lockstep with the slower growth in food prices. He also noted that consumer fury around food prices was largely a reaction to another runaway piece of the Canadian consumer economy — the cost of shelter. As that’s risen rapidly, consumers are frequently forced to make hard decisions in other areas of their domestic economy — such as food choices, as it’s easier to make changes to food purchases than it is to find suitable affordable

“We’ve had a massive trading down in food choices in Canada over the past year — mostly from February to October,” Charlebois said. “That is stabilizing now.”

Charlebois added that the recent Bank of Canada decision to hold pat on interest rates will also contribute to consumer relief both on food prices and shelter costs. He noted that global warming and the desire to decarbonize food supply chains remain inflation risks in the food sector.

Concentration

The report noted that 80 percent of Canada’s grocery market is controlled by five companies: Loblaws (29 per cent market share), Sobeys/Safeway (21 per cent), Costco (11 per cent), Metro (10.8 per cent), and Walmart (7.5 per cent).

“Canada has a concentrated grocery industry and is a tough landscape for new players to break into,” stated the report.

One thing that should help is the “imminent introduction” of a consumer protection code of conduct in Canada’s food sector.

“(It) is a momentous development with promising implications for consumers and the industry,” stated the report.

Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland have already adopted codes and those countries have shown more modest increases in food prices when adjusted for inflation. However the voluntary code has run into newfound opposition from grocers as it nears the finish line. Loblaws is suggesting it could raise grocery prices by more than $1 billion, and Walmart Canada has said it could add unnecessary burdens to producers.

That’s led to a code of conduct push from two high-profile Canadian political leaders.

Lawrence MacAuley, federal minister of agriculture and agri-food and Andre Lamontagne, Quebec’s minister of agriculture, fisheries and food, have issued a joint statement.

“After years of work, broad consultations, and unprecedented engagement across the grocery supply chain, we’re disappointed to see that the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct has still not been launched and that supply chain partners are hesitant to move forward,” the statement reads.

The Canadian government has also introduced Bill C-56, which proposes amendments to the Competition Act to enhance competition in the grocery sector.

—Gord Gilmour is senior editor, news and national affairs with Glacier Farmmedia. He write from Winnipeg.  Additional reporting from Sean Pratt.

The post Canadian food inflation to slow through 2024, report says appeared first on Country Guide.

That’s according to 2021 HungerCount, a report by Food Banks Canada which says a volatile combination of higher food prices, rising housing costs and low incomes has created a “perfect storm” that is driving up the number of visits to food banks.

The need for food banks is widespread. While larger cities have been hardest hit, “a strong undercurrent of need persists in smaller towns and rural areas as seniors and people with disabilities struggle with the challenges of an increased cost of living,” the report says.

The report also emphasizes that “only long-term policy solutions can address the root causes of hunger in Canada.” But in the meantime, many food banks are finding new and innovative ways to provide healthy, nutritious food plus a wide variety of services to alleviate the immediate need.

Country Guide reached out to three local food agencies for a snapshot of some of the innovative ways communities are tapping into local resources while also fostering crucial social connections.

Project protein

In Alberta, farmers are helping those in need through Project Protein, run by the Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge. Farmers and ranchers transport donated pigs and cattle to a participating abattoir where they are processed into ground meat for food bank families. Processing costs are covered through financial donations to the food bank and producers receive a charitable tax receipt for the value of the animal.

During the pilot program, which ran from 2014 to 2016, a total of 130 animals were donated providing 39,000 pounds of ground beef and pork to those in need. The food bank has continued to offer Project Protein ever since, accepting animals as they are offered by producers.

• [ALBERTA FARMER EXPRESS] Albertans coming together while keeping their distance

The program, one of the first of its kind, has been very successful, says Bill Selles, community health facilitator at Interfaith Food Bank. For example, if an animal is not market perfect but is otherwise healthy, it can be taken to one of four participating butchers located within a 100-km radius of Lethbridge. “It’s gleaning from livestock,” he says.

With the recent price hikes for gas, food and utilities, Selles says they are seeing many new people using the food bank’s services. Their clients include students, the under- or unemployed, those on social assistance, people with disabilities and those working in low-income jobs.

The Interfaith Food Bank also invites clients and those in the community who are new to gardening to participate in their Learning Garden. Local gardening specialists and others from the community volunteer their time to help with the weeding, watering and harvesting.

In addition to providing produce directly to food bank families, some of this produce is processed in the food bank’s two safety-certified kitchens.

Meanwhile, the Co-op Community Kitchen is used by community agencies for programming or to make meals using garden and donated produce for those living in supportive housing units.

In the Interfaith Chinook Country Kitchen, families learn to cook healthy meals on a limited budget. It’s also a place where new immigrants and refugees get the opportunity to learn how to cook with ingredients that may be unfamiliar to them.

“When you see people who are struggling — parents and children — processing food and learning to bake, you know you’ve really done something,” says Selles.

More opportunities

Since its launch in Ontario’s southernmost tip a decade ago, the UHC-Hub of Opportunities, representing 15 food banks that offer 26 programs and services, has rescued and re-purposed 25 million pounds of food, much of it fruits and vegetables from local farms and greenhouses. (Most provinces offer fresh food tax credits to farmers who donate food.)

The need is great in Windsor, says UHC executive director June Muir. With its automotive and hospitality sectors, the border city was hard hit during the pandemic, she says. “We have seen people we never saw before.” In particular, Windsor West has the highest child poverty rates in Canada with a third of children living in poverty.

Muir says being located in an area with one of the largest concentrations of greenhouses in North America means they are fortunate to be able to access a lot of fresh produce. Some of that produce is distributed fresh in food hampers to those in need locally, some of it goes to cities “down the highway” and some to northern and Indigenous communities where rates of food insecurity are even higher than the rest of Canada.

Through the UHC’s Farm to Food program, the produce is used to make soups and other meals by partnering with the Greater Essex County School Board. Under a dual-credit Cooks Pre-apprenticeship program, up to 15 students gain hands-on food service training and experience supervised by the UHC’s Red Seal Chef.

“Students are giving back while learning,” says Muir.

In partnership with the VON, the program also provides low-cost meals to about 300 seniors through the Meals on Wheels program, where the meal deliveries are an important source of social connection for seniors, says Muir.

In another UHC program, about 15 teenagers learn to make typical North American foods during a six-week course. Muir says it’s a way for them to try new-to-them foods. They also get recipes and enough food to take some home to their families.

“It’s about more than eating,” says Muir. “It also gives them a chance to socialize and feel like they fit in … it breaks down the feelings of social isolation.”

While familiar foods are a comfort to them, Muir says newcomers are also eager to try the samples of traditional Canadian dishes that are given out when people come to pick up their food hampers.

UHC also offers community garden plots. About 200 families participate, growing their own produce. Gardeners also grow an extra row that they donate to the food bank. “They want to share, they want to give back,” says Muir.

Hope in Vancouver

On Canada’s west coast, a garden is also bringing people together in a neighbourhood known for its extreme poverty and complex social issues. More than half the residents in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are low income and there are high levels of food insecurity. Many have complicated health issues, are homeless, or live in single rooms without cooking facilities. As a result, it’s common for many to have to try to get by on a diet too nutrient poor to support good health.

Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House (DTESNH) is a community organization which aims to build capacity and leadership in this diverse community, says executive director Rory Sutherland. There are people from many different ancestries including Indigenous people, Chinese-speaking seniors and new immigrant families.

With so many people who are not getting their basic needs met, Sutherland says there can be tension but the neighbourhood also has a vibrant culture and strong caring ethic.

For the past two years Neighbourhood House has been operating an urban farm two blocks away on a vacant lot at Hastings and Hawks. A little more than a half-acre, the garden has brought community members together, says Sutherland. “It’s a peaceful space to garden. People benefit so much.”

The garden has been an evolving project. It started with the cleanup of the site and the building of raised beds in the first year, and moved on to experimenting with different crops the next. Several community partners have come on board to support the project, increasing its impact and its reach.

“There’s a lot of pride and ownership in the space,” says Sutherland.

Last year, the garden produced 4,000 pounds of nutritious produce including leafy greens, potatoes, melons, tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers. The produce went into hampers for the families and for meals served at Neighbourhood House. The garden also serves as a cultural space with large Indigenous food and medicine gardens.

The land is privately owned so there is some concern about future availability of the site but Sutherland has a dream of being able to buy the property someday. “It’s such a peaceful oasis in a harsh neighbourhood.”

Resources

• Learn more about food insecurity in Canada through Food Banks Canada’s HungerCount2021 report. 

The post Meeting the growing need for food banks appeared first on Country Guide.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced $28 million “to support the diversion of surplus potatoes, including help to redirect surplus potatoes to organizations addressing food insecurity and support for the environmentally-sound disposal of surplus potatoes.”

Past that, the money will also go toward “marketing activities” and to help the province’s potato industry “develop long-term strategies to manage future challenges.”

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said Monday it will work with the province, the P.E.I. Potato Board, national food bank organizations and “other stakeholder groups” to deliver the funding.

Details on how producers can get support from the new funding envelope will be available “through the coming weeks,” AAFC said.

Canadian export certification for P.E.I. potatoes destined for the U.S. has been suspended since Nov. 22 at the request of U.S. officials, after confirmation of potato wart in two separate P.E.I. processing potato fields on Oct. 1 and 14 respectively.

The two fields were related to previous potato wart detections and were already under regulation, so those fields’ production was at no time destined for the U.S.

Potato wart first turned up in P.E.I. in October 2000 and had since been found in 33 other fields there. After a months-long ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S. in 2000, a system was set up in 2001 to allow exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected. That system, dubbed the Potato Wart Domestic Long Term Management Plan, had been in use since then.

The federal government reiterated Monday it “stands firmly on the science that indicates that the risks associated with the transmission of potato wart from fresh potatoes remains negligible when appropriate risk mitigation measures are in place.”

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Monday it will continue to make “science-based data and details of its investigation” into the October cases available to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and that soil sampling and soil testing processes “are taking place as quickly as possible.”

Describing the suspension as “an incredibly hard time for our province’s potato farmers,” Heath MacDonald, MP for the P.E.I. constituency of Malpeque, said Monday the U.S. nevertheless has “been clear that trade cannot resume until we have worked through their technical concerns.”

Disposal of surplus potatoes — particularly in 2021 — is expected to be difficult at best. Greg Donald, the P.E.I. Potato Board’s general manager, said earlier this month it won’t be possible for the Canadian domestic market alone to eat through the surplus.

“If this goes beyond another week or two, somebody’s going to have to make some tough decisions what to do with the massive volume of potatoes,” Donald said on the Dec. 2 episode of the Between The Rows podcast.

To destroy surplus potatoes during a P.E.I. winter will mean shredding them through equipment such as snowblowers for spreading onto fields as compost, he said.

To leave them in storage beyond the winter, for disposal somehow in the spring, would be “a huge biosecurity issue itself” — and “you can’t dig a hole deep enough” to bury that volume of product.

Typically growing about a quarter of Canada’s potato production annually, P.E.I. was just coming off a record-level year in terms of both yield and quality,

Generally, he said, about 40 per cent of P.E.I.’s fresh potato crop is shipped each year to the U.S., and that level was expected to be higher this year as U.S. domestic production was expected to be down on the year.

‘Potential solutions’

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to drag down crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The disease appears mainly below-ground, on plants’ tubers and runners. It comes from a soil-borne fungal parasite that spreads through movement of affected potatoes, soil, farm equipment and manure from animals that digest infested potatoes.

Potato wart has never been seen in any other Canadian province except Newfoundland and Labrador, where it’s been under “regulatory control” since 1909.

U.S. officials have said the disease “is not known to be present” in that country; it appeared during the 20th century in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland and was deemed eradicated in all three, lastly in Maryland in 1994.

After the export suspension was imposed last month, the federal and P.E.I. governments and stakeholders set up a Government-Industry Potato Working Group to “exchange information, help mitigate impacts of potato wart on the sector, and identify potential short- and long-term solutions to current trade disruptions.”

AAFC said Monday that Fred Gorrell, a former assistant deputy minister with the department and leader of the federal Market Access Secretariat, has been asked to be the new co-chair of the working group.

Past that, the federal and P.E.I. governments noted Monday they’ve also arranged changes to the AgriStability income stabilization program, allowing late enrolment for any potato growers who hadn’t already signed on for the 2021 program year.

The allowable interim payments available under AgriStability have also been raised, AAFC noted, so producers can apply to receive up to 75 rather than 50 per cent of their anticipated payment.

‘Ineffective action’

The province’s potato growers, meanwhile, took their concerns to the public Monday, organizing a convoy that included 16 potato trucks, carrying an estimated half million pounds of fresh potatoes through Charlottetown.

“We are here to show the federal government, who walked us into this situation, how we’re feeling and the impact their ineffective action is having,” grower John Visser, who chairs the P.E.I. Potato Board, said in a release Monday.

The board said the convoy of potato trucks is also “a statement by farmers of what is to come” as farmers may have to destroy up to 500 million pounds of “healthy, safe potatoes” because of the export ban.

Visser, in the board’s release, noted that growers “appreciate (Monday’s) assistance announcement as a start; however, what’s going to make the most difference to us is a resolution to the border issue, so we can resume trade as soon as possible.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Feds put up funds toward managing P.E.I. potato surplus appeared first on Country Guide.

Tania Little has deep gratitude for the support that farmers and farm groups give to Food Banks Canada. As chief development and partnership officer at FBC, it is Little’s job to connect sources of quality surplus food with the 4,700 agencies in the Canadian food bank network.

“Farmers are very generous at heart … they want to feed people. They don’t grow food to see it go to waste,” says Little. 

Every month, Canada’s food banks feed more than a million mouths (pre-pandemic), so there is clearly a pressing need.

FBC and food banks across the country have long-standing relationships with egg, chicken, turkey and dairy farmer associations, and more recently with bison, veal, duck and fisheries producers.

While Little is grateful for the partnerships with the ag community, she knows there is still more food that could be recovered.

With research showing almost $50 billion worth of food is wasted in Canada each year, Little welcomes conversations with the ag community about how the food bank community can be smart partners to help farmers reduce food waste and feed their neighbours.

Little says farmers with food to donate can contact their nearest food bank (a searchable list is available on the Food Banks Canada website). For larger amounts that might require greater logistics or support, farmers can contact Food Banks Canada directly.

Most provinces offer fresh food tax credits to farmers who donate food.

“We try to make it easy for farmers,” says Little. “Our food team works with plane, rail and truck logistics to ensure the food gets to where it’s needed.”

Passing it along

Food donations that surpass local needs are shared with other areas in need. Food Banks Canada’s own studies plus data from Stats Canada are used to determine the proportional food-sharing formula.

For example, a food bank like Daily Bread in Toronto relies on donations from the financial, manufacturing and retail sectors while a food bank like UHC — Hub of Opportunity in Windsor — receives tremendous donations of food year-round from vegetable farms and greenhouses in the surrounding Essex County.

“The UHC makes one million servings of soup each year in its community kitchen through the Farm to Food Program,” says UHC food rescue program manager Mike Turnbull. The soups are vacuum-sealed in plastic bags, flash-frozen and palletized for easy shipping. Some of the soup is distributed locally and some of it goes to food banks in other areas through Feed Ontario, the province’s largest collective of hunger-relief organizations.

Several soups are made by Red Seal certified chefs to suit specific dietary and cultural needs. Volunteers help the chefs, and the community kitchen also serves as an off-site campus for students to learn food skills.

Along with the human capacity, an investment in infrastructure including a walk-in freezer, dicing machine, community kitchen and refrigerated truck extend their reach.

“It’s win-win,” says Turnbull, noting that the program diverts surplus or other produce that is still useable but doesn’t meet market demands. That food would otherwise be tilled back into the soil or end up in a landfill where it produces damaging greenhouse gases.

UHC also has warehouse space where volunteers sort the skids of incoming produce into 13- to 20-pound boxes of assorted fresh fruit and vegetables which are shared with other food agencies throughout southern Ontario.

The UHC currently rescues three to four million pounds of food per year but can do more, says Turnbull.

The need doesn’t go away

While food banks were originally started to fill an emergency need situation, the reality is that the need isn’t going away, says Turnbull. “It grows every year.”

When Turnbull started working at UHC a decade ago, he went out and knocked on doors to raise awareness of the organization’s food rescue programs. He continues to foster those relationships, working with the greenhouse growers’ association. He has been at it for so long that now people approach him to pick up surplus food, he says.

Besides donations from farmers and farm groups, there are several other points in the food system where Food Banks Canada recovers food, says Little. “We work to intersect quality food at any point in the system.”

Food Banks Canada works with manufacturers to take surplus food when an order has fallen through, when a product has been mislabelled (such as a spelling error), or when manufacturing has exceeded demand.

At the retail level, FBC recovers food from the “back of store.” This includes produce, proteins, dairy and “quick and ready” items that need to be consumed soon as well as other processed foods that are 60 to 90 days out from their best-before dates.

From front-of-store, FBC collects the donations purchased by donors such as dried pasta, canned tuna and jars of peanut butter. Non-perishable items also come via food drives and drop-offs at a variety of community drop-off sites such as firehalls.

“We glean and gather from every part of the system,” says Little.

A growing network

Some of the food banks’ other food collection streams are less well-known to the public. Some manufacturers have intentionally built in a dedicated first run set of products for food banks. For example, Kraft Heinz has a five-year commitment to donate nutritionally valuable product such as baby food, legumes, peanut butter and tomato sauce. “These foods have the full 12- to 24-month shelf-life,” says Little.

Canadian food banks also purchase more than $100 million worth of food each year. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic when supply chains were having to adjust to changing markets due to stay-at-home orders, about $50 million worth of proteins, dairy, cheese and eggs were purchased nationally and redistributed to complement food recovered, donated and purchased locally.

Most people are unaware that the Food Bank has its own private label, Little adds. In partnership with the For Good Foundation, surplus foods are canned or packaged by manufacturing partners, and provided to local food banks.

Regardless of the source, food safety is a focus throughout the system, says Little. The 30 largest food banks across the country have substantial warehouses and cold chain technology.

“Food safety is a top priority and we work with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Public Health to guarantee protocols are followed,” says Little, noting that strong traceability and food recall systems are in place.

While some people may associate food banks with canned tuna and pasta, says Little, “food banks have really evolved to meet a variety of cultural and diverse needs across the community and ensure food safety with high-nutrient-dense foods.”

Who to call?

Farmers with food to donate can contact their nearest food bank (a searchable list is available on the Food Banks Canada website) or, for larger amounts, contact Food Banks Canada directly. Most provinces offer fresh food tax credits to farmers who donate food.

The post Selling food donations appeared first on Country Guide.

Statistics Canada’s Community Health Survey reported in 2017-18 that 4.4 million people in Canada, including 1.2 million children under the age of 18, were unable to access enough food to eat.

The pandemic has exacerbated a problem that has been getting worse each year since the first Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) was conducted in 2005, says Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer, a professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan.

One food security agency estimates the number who are hungry may have doubled due to the job losses associated with the pandemic.

Food insecurity is defined as when people are struggling to feed themselves due to insufficient income, says Engler-Stringer. More than hunger, the term food insecurity includes not only whether people are getting enough to eat, but also if they are getting sufficient nutrition, as well as the social and psychological factors like the increased stress and anxiety around having inadequate food.

The repercussions of this inability to access enough good food are far-reaching. A report by PROOF, an interdisciplinary food insecurity research program based at the University of Toronto, concludes that children who don’t get enough to eat are prone to mental health problems and are at increased risk of developing asthma and depression.

Adults without enough healthy food face higher levels of chronic health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and back problems.

Food insecurity has ramifications in the broader system too. “Health care costs, education costs, incarceration rates… these things are all connected,” says Engler-Stringer. Population-scale research shows that by creating conditions upstream for people to meet their needs, problems downstream can be avoided, saving money, she adds.

Food insecurity research also shines a spotlight on systemic racial inequities. The highest rates of food insecurity, according to a report by PROOF, are found among households where the survey respondent identified as Indigenous or Black.

Food insecurity isn’t just a big-city problem. Although food insecurity in rural areas is not well-studied, Engler-Stringer says older populations, in particular, may be impacted if they are not physically able to grow gardens or drive to the nearest grocery store in the city to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables.

In northern Canada, according to the CCHS, as much as half of the population may be food insecure. The high cost of transportation, a lack of infrastructure, lack of economic opportunities, and destruction of traditional foodways for Indigenous populations contribute to horrendous levels of food insecurity in these areas, explains Dr. Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph.

While food insecurity is a complex problem, poverty is at its root, says Engler-Stringer. “Incomes have stagnated, especially in the bottom half of the spectrum, relative to the rising cost of living. We need to have an honest conversation about income.”

Many food security advocates are calling for basic income supports or a living wage in Canada. We could learn from the example of Scandinavian countries which have done a better job of tackling food insecurity, she says.

Some of the other factors that can contribute to food insecurity are a lack of access to food in some communities, a lack of public transit, the precarious nature of work and the high cost of housing.

Edible food waste diversion

Many organizations are taking action to ease the plight of those who are food insecure. One strategy is to divert food that would otherwise be wasted. Second Harvest, a Toronto-based food rescue organization, has created an online platform (foodrescue.ca) to make it convenient for businesses with surplus edible food to connect directly with local charities that can redistribute that food. 

The Food Rescue platform, which is available across Canada, takes a local approach to give donors a simple and fast system to connect directly with social service programs in their area, says Second Harvest CEO Lori Nikkel.

Farmers and other businesses can access the platform through a mobile app or they can call the central Toronto phone number and be put in touch with an agri-food procurement staff member in their area, she says.

“No amount of food is too big or too little,” says Nikkel, who hopes to get more government funding to continue a program that allowed Second Harvest to purchase surplus food from farmers and redistribute it to those in need during the first year of the pandemic. Bryan Dale, project manager of the University of Toronto’s Feeding the City project, says recovered foods can also be repurposed into community meals and cooking programs.

School nutrition programs

School lunch programs can help ensure children receive adequate nutrition since children consume about a third of their daily food intake while at school. Engler-Stringer says the data shows that children, regardless of family income level, are not eating very well at school.

Currently, there is a patchwork of programs but with a universal school nutrition program, all children would have the opportunity for a healthy meal at school, although she says the program would not necessarily be free.

Engler-Stringer says school nutrition programs could have other benefits such as getting children interested in healthy food, teaching them about food systems and supporting Canadian farmers through the purchase of local food.

Foodbanks and community food centres

Since the first foodbank opened in Edmonton as a temporary measure in 1981, thousands of foodbanks have sprung up across the country. While foodbanks are helping alleviate the pressing immediate need, they are more of a band-aid solution, says Engler-Stringer. Dale agrees. Many foodbanks only distribute non-perishable foods which may not be nutritious or culturally relevant to those receiving the food, he says.

In Toronto, THE STOP evolved from a traditional foodbank into a thriving community hub where neighbours participate in a broad range of programs that provide healthy food, foster social connections and build food skills. THE STOP has a community kitchen, greenhouse, garden, bake oven and farmers market.

Community food centres are based on a similar multi-dimensional model of creating welcoming community spaces where people come together to grow, cook and share food, and they are springing up in towns and cities across Canada.

Jacqueline Dwyer and Noel Livingston, founders of the Toronto Black Farmers and Food Growers Collective, have been working to make healthy food accessible and hope to create a thriving local food hub.

The pair have been growing vegetables in a greenhouse and on a small plot of land in Downsview Park in Toronto. In addition to vegetables, which they grow and sell in the park, they have had a teaching garden, taught food prep and food storage skills, hosted a pop-up market in an under-serviced area, and collaborated with community leaders to deliver hampers of healthy food.

“Food poverty is real. The research is there. The data is there,” says Dwyer, who holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from York University. “When we are not eating properly, everything falls apart, including your mind.”

Dwyer and Livingston have been working to reclaim the cultural food knowledge that has been lost through the generations and to empower themselves through the land, their work and the community.

“Everyone comes to the table with something they want to explore or they share their knowledge from their home country or from a family member such as a grandparent,” says Dwyer. “Food is the nucleus, the glue, the bond that brings people together,” adds Livingston.

The Black Farmers Collective invites farmers, youth, chefs and others to join with them in providing access to healthy food. Says Dwyer, “When we come together it’s powerful.”

Resources

• Feeding the City: Documenting Food System Experiences, Community Challenges & Local Resilience During Covid-19 and Beyond. University of Toronto and Ryerson University are partnering in this comprehensive project to collect data and stories from food consumers, food workers, producers, agri-food networks and social enterprises.
• PROOF is an interdisciplinary research program at the University of Toronto working to identify effective policy interventions to reduce household food insecurity in Canada.

The post Hungry in Canada appeared first on Country Guide.

As part of the federal pandemic response, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in early May that Ottawa would budget $50 million for a food surplus purchase program. The funding would go to buy and move large quantities of perishables deemed surplus as the pandemic shut down much of the restaurant and hospitality industries in Canada and the U.S.

The program was opened up for applications from interested non-government organizations from mid-June through mid-July and Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced the eight successful applicants Thursday at an event at St-Hyacinthe, Que.

The eight partnerships, which in all involve over 100 different organizations, are expected to address “urgent, high-volume, highly perishable” surplus.

The funding provided under the program is expected to ensure producers and processors are “fairly compensated” for their work at the cost of production, while also helping to develop relationships with community food providers and support efforts to reduce food waste, the government said.

In all, the chosen program partners are expected to redistribute about 12 million kilograms of surplus food to “more food-insecure” families — food the government said “would otherwise have been wasted.”

The chosen organizations are to leverage “existing food redistribution and recovery networks and agencies,” among them “leading not-for-profits,” which will redistribute products including, among others, potatoes, chicken, turkey, eggs, fruit, vegetables, fish and other seafood.

The program’s $50 million budget will break down as follows:

• Canadian Produce Marketing Association and charitable agencies, $11,429,926
• Food Banks Canada, $11,358,529
• Second Harvest, $11,007,095
• Fisher River Cree Nation, $10,845,048
• La Tablee des Chefs, $1,522,900
• Clearwater Seafood and Indigenous communities, $1,491,072
• Les Fermes Dani, $1,430,000, and
• Green Seafoods Ltd. and Feed Nova Scotia, $55,230.

The program “leverages the deep supply chain expertise and knowledge the food banking network has, thereby helping those in Canada experiencing food insecurity in the most efficient manner,” Food Banks Canada CEO Chris Hatch said in the government’s release Thursday.

“We are thankful for the opportunity to build deeper partnerships within the agri-food system as well as helping ensure that highly nutritious, available food feeds people in need and that these resources are stewarded responsibly.”

For its project, Food Banks Canada plans to rescue “multiple” surplus commodities and flow those foods in both “current and processed formats” to its network of over 3,000 local-level food banks and community agencies.

The CPMA’s project will work similarly, moving produce to participating charitable agencies through participating distribution and transport companies.

Second Harvest’s project will work in much the same way, but will use its FoodRescue.ca online platform and mobile app to determine “when and from where” specific surplus foods are acquired, and to make sure the rate of distribution “does not exceed the handling and storage capacity of individual food charities.”

Quebec-based La Tablee des Chefs plans to recover over 350,000 kg of surplus foods, to be turned into meals by its network of chefs in Les Cuisines Solidaires in Quebec and in five Canadian cities: Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg. Meals are then to be redistributed through Banques Alimentaires du Quebec, Second Harvest and other organizations.

Fisher River Cree Nation, in Manitoba’s Interlake region, expects to secure up to 2.9 million pounds of walleye caught in Canada’s inland lakes, for distribution to over 75 Indigenous communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Canada’s North.

For that project, distribution will be handled by way of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corp., the Winnipeg-based marketing agency for commercial fishers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.

The Clearwater project will see 150,000 pounds of surplus seafood distributed to Indigenous communities in Nova Scotia and nationally, while the Green Seafoods project will see 24,000 pounds of frozen blue mussels bought and distributed through Feed Nova Scotia. Les Fermes Dani will distribute surplus potatoes to Indigenous communities in New Brunswick and nationally.

“Not only are we helping producers who cannot sell their goods to restaurants, but we are also aiding Canadians that have had to seek help from food banks,” Bibeau said during Thursday’s announcement.

“These eight impressive partnerships between food businesses and not-for-profit organizations target those food commodities that had significant and urgent surpluses, making a difference both at the level of the producer and the food bank, from coast to coast to coast.”

“By working across sectors to build partnerships, we’re creating a mutually beneficial system that meets two urgent needs at once,” federal Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said in the same release.

Bibeau’s event Thursday was held at the St-Hyacinthe head office of Nutri Group, an egg marketing agency which with partners across Canada pledged over one million dozen fresh shell eggs to the Food Banks Canada and Second Harvest projects. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Feds line up projects for surplus food program appeared first on Country Guide.

That’s not likely a temporary blip. Food bank officials say they expect ongoing pressure as the country’s economy slowly recovers over the weeks and months ahead.

“During the 2008 economic crisis, food bank use increased by 28 per cent during that time and never came back down to pre-recession levels,” says a spokesperson for Food Banks Canada.

“Given the depth of economic disruption this time, we can expect the increase of food banks use over the coming months to climb at least 30 per cent, but likely higher.”

Where will the food come from to meet this need? The root of the problem is poverty and the solutions will come, eventually, in new income support programs for Canadians.

Near press time we were awaiting an announcement on details for a $50 million federal COVID-19 response program aimed at buying surplus food from farmers for distributing in communities in need.

Meanwhile, food banks have long pitched ideas for transitioning away from short-term charitable responses to domestic food aid based on alternate models for procuring surplus food.

As early as 2016, Food Banks Canada was calling for an agricultural federal tax credit, the idea being to provide a small opportunity for food producers to recoup some of their production costs as they contribute food for redistribution through food banks.

The idea garnered support from the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and from the National Zero Waste Council for its potential to divert and redistribute surplus quality food from landfills.

There are also models already in place. Four jurisdictions in Canada have provincial tax credits for farmer donations.

Ontario was first to introduce the scheme in 2013 when the provincial government amended its “Local Food Act.” The Ontario law now enables farmers there to claim 25 per cent of the fair market value of food donated to eligible food programs. British Columbia and Nova Scotia soon passed similar laws. Quebec introduced an even more generous credit of 50 per cent value of the donation.

“Fair market value means what the farmer could get for that product in a retail market such as a grocery store,” explains Mary Childs, Vancouver-based lawyer with expertise in food donation law, previously with Miller Thomson LLP, now general counsel at Tsawwassen First Nation.

“For amounts under $1,000, fair market value can be approximated on a case-by-case basis by a food bank staffer with sufficient knowledge. The Canada Revenue Agency also has guidelines for determining this value.”

Childs does point out that donating is still a great option elsewhere in Canada, and farmers in other provinces should be aware they may still be able to obtain some tax benefits from these donations.

“In-kind donations to charities may entitle them to charitable donation tax credits under the rules that apply to all donations to registered charities,” Childs says. Donors should check local regulations because the rules can differ slightly province to province.

Food Banks Canada has called the approach a way to strengthen the agricultural sector and assure nutritious food for the people they help.

Those donations are substantial too. Food Banks Canada doesn’t have exact data from their network across the country, but notes that donations like the 1.8 million eggs from Egg Farmers of Canada in 2019 — with pledges to double that support during COVID-19 — tell the tale.

Other commodity groups are also very strong.

“Food banks across the country already have many great relationships with farmers and food producers in their communities and are very grateful for their generosity,” the spokesperson said.

Generosity is the key word, however. Farmers donate food primarily as an act of philanthropy, say those who have researched the impact of tax credits for addressing food insecurity as well as food loss and waste.

A study completed recently in Ontario, however, looked at donations of fresh produce from farmers and found a gap between what the tax credits were expected to achieve and the actual outcome.

Farmers donating fresh produce to Ontario food banks told the the researchers that they hadn’t been influenced by the tax credit to make their donations, said Lesia Kinach, a University of Guelph MA in its department of geography and environment, and lead author of Do food donation tax credits for farmers address food loss/waste and food insecurity? recently published in Agriculture and Human Values.

Instead, their primary motivation was to support the community and avoid seeing good food go to waste, Kinach said.

“Many farmers were already donating before the tax credit. It wasn’t a huge factor in their decision to donate,” she said.

That study, which looked specifically at fresh produce donations from farmers in southern Ontario, also identifies another issue: food banks don’t always have the storage capacity to handle increased volumes of donated food. Introduction of tax credits alone won’t address that challenge.

Kinach said their study concludes there’s need — one that is intensifying as 2020 advances — for a rethink of Canada’s donation-dependent food bank system, including finding ways to help farmers support it.

Further reading:

• Food Banks Canada 2016 Fresh Food Tax Credit Proposal
• Food Donation Laws in Canada
• Do food donation tax credits for farmers address food loss/waste and food insecurity? A case study from Ontario

The post Tax credits for donated food appeared first on Country Guide.

The $50 million Surplus Food Rescue Program — which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau telegraphed in a funding announcement May 5 — will take applications from “organizations addressing food insecurity” from now until July 15, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau announced Monday.

The program — to be administered by the federal agriculture department — is meant to move surplus food through the system “as efficiently as possible to help vulnerable Canadians.”

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the “near closure” of the restaurant and foodservice sectors in both Canada and the U.S., which in turn left producers with surpluses of food and “increased demand from grocery stores alone is not expected to clear the inventory before it spoils,” the government said in a release.

“At the same time, the pandemic has increased the demand for food from food banks and other food security organizations in communities across Canada.”

Bibeau said last week the government had already started to work on the program with businesses that have surpluses they can offer to food bank networks.

The program is to back the “purchase, processing, transportation and redistribution of surplus food… that may be fresh, frozen inventory or in need of further processing due to its highly perishable nature.”

Surplus commodities eligible for the program can include foods in fresh form as well as those that need to be processed and packaged into “shelf-stable” products for storage or distribution.

Surplus foods, once processed, must be donated and are not to be resold, AAFC added.

Applicants can include not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, such as industry groups, processors, distributors, food serving agencies, regional and municipal governments, schools, school boards and other agencies.

But applicants must also “demonstrate an ability to handle the full logistical requirements for acquiring, processing, transporting and ensuring shelf-life stability of surplus commodities and delivery to organizations serving vulnerable populations.”

The program is meant to address “urgent, high-volume, highly perishable surplus products falling under horticulture, meat and fish and seafood,” the government said.

“Priority consideration for surplus commodities that have immediate risk of loss will be determined first,” the government said. It gave potatoes and “some aquaculture products” as examples of goods that “need immediate processing or will be lost or destroyed.”

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said it will take an “inclusive and challenge-based approach” with applicants.

Contributions from the program will be paid out to organizations which, among other criteria, can “acquire and move the most surplus product.” Applicants will need to identify the amount to be moved.

Applicants must also show they have the “most cost-effective approach” in acquiring food — for example, at or below the cost of production, or through donations where possible. They’ll also have to show they can provide the most cost-effective approach — at “minimal cost” — for processing if goods can’t be distributed otherwise.

They’ll also have to show they can be the most efficient at drawing down surplus stocks quickly, from wholesale purchases through to food-serving agencies, and that they have partnerships “already established along the supply chain” — including connections to food-serving agencies.

AAFC, which is targeting up to 10 per cent of all food specifically for northern communities, also said applicants will need to be able to make sure food reaches “the most vulnerable and remote communities” in Canada.

“Nobody wants to see food go to waste, and thanks to this new program, we’re helping the industry redistribute surplus products to vulnerable, local communities where it can make a real difference in someone’s life,” Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan said in Monday’s release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Federal surplus food program now taking applications appeared first on Country Guide.

Ottawa tabbed $50 million of its COVID-19 response funds for agriculture to buy surplus food from farmers and redistribute it to communities in need.

The challenge Bibeau and her federal colleagues are faced with is how to match excess food supplies with pre-existing food security distribution networks.

“It’s a matter of days before we inform everyone of the criteria of the programs, but we have already started to work with the different industries who have surpluses that they can offer to the food-bank networks,” Bibeau said during a media availability Tuesday.

Initial indications from the federal government were that the money would start rolling out by the end of May, when the fund was first announced.

But Canada’s food supply chains are not straightforward enough to simply take excess products, such as potatoes and poultry, and distribute them to food banks.

In an online meeting of the Commons standing agriculture committee on Wednesday, Bibeau said some concerned sectors, including meat, horticulture and fish producers, have been contacted already.

According to a statement from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), commodities that would be eligible for the program are still being identified, and the program parameters are being developed to be made public “in the near future.”

“This will be done in a manner that respects the needs and health of vulnerable populations in Canada, fairly compensates agricultural producers and agri-food processors, maintains positive relationships with community food providers, and supports efforts to reduce food waste,” the statement said.

Bibeau also hinted the federal government’s “Buy Canadian” promotional campaign will “have to wait a bit longer” before being launched.

Concerns have been raised within her department over the timing of that program, and what commodities it will focus on, but its goal remains to spend $25 million to “build consumer confidence and pride in Canada’s agriculture, food and seafood producers and highlight the advantages of their products.”

Bibeau’s comments came during a press conference to announce previously announced money was available to help address food security issues. To support local food infrastructures, roughly $43.4 million can now be accessed by eligible organizations.

— D.C. Fraser reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

The post Details on federal food surplus program expected in ‘days’ appeared first on Country Guide.